Organic living in Portugal

River

Walkway

Pool

Lookout

OrganicFarm

OurHome

Ouroffice

After a rocky start getting to Portugal, including a 7 hour delay, missed flights, and 2 days of lost baggage, things are looking up!Like in Costa Rica, we found our current volunteer spot through Workaway.info but this time it is in a nature preserve about 4 hours outside Lisbon in a tiny village in the country.  What drew us to it was the open air yoga platform over looking the river, glamping style tents, the organic garden and all organic meals, miles of remote hiking, and of course the like-minded community.The group of people living in this community are the cream of the crop. Daniel is a chef from Ireland, Natasha & Michel are the owners and parents in seek of a more simple life for their children, P & Roberto are on school break from Spain, and Emmy is traveling indefinitely and has been living & working here for 2 months.I am in charge of cooking breakfast and lunch for all of the guests who stay here which means tons of creative time in the kitchen – usually something that is hard to come by when on the road.  I already made my raw cheesecake, and chia seed pudding with berries is up next!This is the organic garden where we grow spinach, eggplant, carrots, onion, tomatoes, cabbage, strawberries, lettuce, cucumbers, and zucchini.Every morning I come out here first thing to see what is fresh and available for breakfast that morning.  I've been making lots of spinach salads and omelettes with zucchini, onion, and tomato.Our tent is big but not sealed on the bottom so the dirt tends to accumulate a little.  We had zero furniture, just a mattress on the ground when we arrived, so Ross built us a couple tables out of pallets for our things.The weather is really perfect and there is no humidity at all.  There are cool crisp mornings, sunny hot afternoons, and chilly evenings -- a welcomed change from Austin summers.We almost didn't bring our hammock but thank goodness we did because it's the only place to lay to escape the mid-day heat.  Every day between about 2pm - 4pm is spent relaxing in the hammock.But the best part is probably the stars which light up the sky making it unnecessary to carry a flashlight.  You can see the milky way as clear as day, every night.

Our secret hideaway work spot where we escape to edit video in peace and quiet.

WeDine

This is where we work every morning before others have woken up. 

On the business side, Ross & I are busy building the online training school for Young Living oils. We have our first "Getting Started" videos up and running and are so excited to share them with you! The “User Essentials” are open to everyone but the “Business Guide” is password protected for those building a business on our team.It’s time to cook breakfast but I’ll be back soon with some of the photos of the organic goodness being created.Any simple whole foods recipes you’d like to share with me that I can bring to this community? Would love to hear about them!Much love from Portugal,Carly